A carousel pony named Pinto has made the rounds through New Mexico and Lafayette, but took her final stop in Boulder, after becoming a community art project for pARTiculars Art Gallery and Teaching Studio.

The black, lacquered horse was discovered at a garage sale during the summer of 2011 in Santa Fe, transported to Albuquerque and gifted to Marilyn Diener, who now lives in Lafayette.

"I lived in Albuquerque for 12 years and I had wonderful neighbors, Martin and Carol (Torrey). Carol was a garage sale fanatic," Diener said. "I went over (to Carol's) and there was this carousel horse that someone had put a pole through and a lampshade on."

The Torreys knew Diener and her granddaughters, Samantha and Nicole, shared a similar interest where carousel horses were concerned.

"They knew that I loved carousel horses and that the girls loved carousel music boxes," Diener said. "They'd pick up carousel music boxes they'd find at yard sales and give them to me. I think I have five or six boxes that I've given to the girls."

This time, instead of a miniature version, Diener was given the entire horse, and it made the move to Lafayette with her in late 2012.

Sculptor and fiber artist Suzanne Connolly-Nowes is part of Old Town's pARTiculars cooperative and oversees community art projects in Lafayette. After Diener and her granddaughters attended an art class there, they donated the pony to the co-op as a community art project.

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Connolly-Nowes knew she wanted to turn the horse into a three-dimensional mosaic, but had to rack her creative brain on how she would accomplish it.

"I looked at it — all the mosaics I do are with glass and pottery — and I was concerned with the contours of the horse, and that it would lose the contours of the horse if I used glass and pottery. My concern was to find a medium to mosaic the horse so it would still look like a horse," she said.

Connolly-Nowes recalled the ancient art she'd once seen created by Aztec Indians inside temples in Mexico — mosaics made from beans — and knew that's what she would cover the horse with; ultimately using pinto beans for the body. The horse was called Pinto.

Over a span of three months last summer, more than 70 people helped Connolly-Nowes create the mosaic horse, using a variety of beans and seeds, including pinto beans over its body, and black, navy, adzuki and Anasazi beans for the hooves, mane and tail. The pony's saddle was adorned with black peppercorns, lentils and split peas. A flock of felt birds were added to the horse's saddle and the lampshade was removed.

Connolly-Nowes said getting the community involved in Lafayette's art scene is her "total joy" and the pony drew people in to help.

"Any given day, I'd have between five and 20 people helping me. Some people would put one bean on and some would stay with me for three hours," she said.

The horse was displayed in pARTiculars' front window for months upon completion and Connolly-Nowes and Diener decided to auction Pinto to raise money for the gallery and teaching studio.

Before Pinto could even go to auction, LaDonna Shea of Boulder last December visited the galleries and shops along Public Road and stumbled across the piece of art in pARTiculars' window.

"I saw that horse and it's quite unique," Shea said. "It's kind of fun and whimsical. It's not bright colors, but it's nice colors. I just liked the whimsical quality to it."

She offered to pay $800 for the horse, the purchase amount Connolly-Nowes thought the horse would bring in at an auction, and Pinto was sold. That money will help fund this summer's community art project, a series of three mosaic doors that will be part of a permanent installation at the gallery.

One door has already been completed, and Connolly-Nowes will continue to engage the community in the project during Lafayette's seasonal Art Night Out event, held on the third Friday night of the month in Old Town.

pARTiculars also received a $500 grant from the Lafayette Cultural Arts Commission to fund this summer's project.

Shea was happy the money would go to a good cause and equally pleased to give the pony a new home.

"I grew up with horses. I was one of those teenage horse nuts. Now I hope I never have another real horse in my life. They're too much work," Shea said, noting that, thanks to pARTiculars, Pinto is a nice addition to her bedroom.

"I think the people in Lafayette are lucky to have people creating an art scene in that town, and pARTiculars is one of the major contributors to the arts scene in Lafayette."

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